Frozen Flame: Ember's Epilouge
by Elvish-Elenai
Summary: Sequel to 'Return of the Key' There were many mysteries left unsolved, and many more unveiled at the final battle. After her brother's death, Ana returns to the place it all started and pairs up with an unexpected ally.


Frozen Flame

Ember's Epilogue

_So... what ever happened to Elenai and Ember and Ana? _

_Patience, child. The part that I just told you was just the beginning of a grand adventure. A tale takes time and energy to weave, like a blanket, and I am tired for the night. We should go to bed now. We don't want the evil spirits to come and grab you to eat, do we?_

_Aww... Grandma, please, tell me more! _

_Allen..._

_Please?_

_Fine, Allen. But just a bit more. It is past yours and my bedtimes. Your parents will be angry with me._

_I don't care! Just tell me!_

_Okay. After the mysterious encounter with Ember and Ana's father, Ana went with her brother to Traverse Town, where they lived a fairly peaceful life. That was, until Koiya died of a Heartless wound..._

- - - - -

"I'm sorry I failed you, Koiya. I spent so much time looking for you, and now it's all been taken away..." Tears streamed down Ana's face, as a coffin was slowly lowered into the ground. "I will find that Heartless that killed you. And destroy it." The coffin made a thump when it hit the ground, and Ana turned away from it. She walked back into Traverse Town, through the hundreds of tombstones littering the countryside.

_I thought Ana and Koiya returned to their home world, Sakyo._

_You see, child, after the 'Lord of Darkness' fell, Ana and Koiya tried to return to Sakyo, their home world. But when Ana left that world, it crumbled to the Heartless. It seemed that the only thing keeping them from destroying it was Ana. After they found out about their lack of a home, they went back to Traverse Town. The Heartless started rampaging that town, and many died. _

_And Koiya was one of them?_

_Yes, Allen. That was it for Ana. She deserted Traverse Town, and went searching for the Heartless._

Silently Ana brought her axe down on the Heartless' head, killing it. Without as much as a look back, she continued to destroy the Heartless on Acsis.

_Once Acsis had been the home to Elenai and Ember, but not anymore. Elenai had been killed by the 'Lord of Darkness' and Ember had disappeared. Nothing was left for Ana there, except for vengence. But she didn't know about..._

"She hasn't changed a bit..." a voice muttered. "Still using that overly heavy axe. But her aura's different, somehow. She's suffered a great loss." It chuckled at itself. "Good then. It's easier for the kill."

Ana killed several more Heartless, her eyes cold. After she destroyed the last one, frost started to gather at her feet, and her axe froze. Suddenly it shattered, and Ana summoned her Keyblade into her hand. "It's been so long..."

"Who are you?" yelled Ana into the now-dark day.

"Don't you remember me, Ana?" Out from the nearby forest stepped a turquoise-haired person, her eyes the same color. There was only one person that Ana knew fit that description.

"Elenai?"

_Elenai._

_You mean she didn't die?_

_Just wait. The story hasn't revealed itself yet._

"Hmph. I would've thought you would remember me sooner. Seeing how I _died_ because of you and all," Elenai said, her eyes halfway filled with anger, halfway with sadness.

Ana laughed nervously. "I see you're still kinda peeved about my dad um.. trying--"

"You assumed, since I'm standing here right now and not a Heartless, that he simply tried to kill me, and didn't succeed," she said logically.

"Um.. yeah..."

Ana had put the Keyblade away. "Well..." she started.

"Hm?"

"Who said I wasn't Heartless?"

_Elenai was a Heartless?_

_Yes, child. _

_But why?_

_She had no other choice. Her heart was taken from her. But something stayed. She kept her human shape, and using that, was able to trick many, many people..._

Elenai lept at Ana, expecting an easy kill. Ana summoned her magic that had laid dormant for a long while. Vines wrapped around Elenai's ankles and wrists, holding her in midair. Ana smirked.

"You underestimate me," Elenai said, and turned to pure darkness, easing out of her bonds. "Now here's a riddle. What type of heartless am I? I'll leave you alone for a day or two to ponder the answer." She formed back into her human shape, and looked at the woods nearby, her former home. "You'll be meeting one of my enemies very soon," she whispered. At that, she disappeared completely.

Ana scratched her head like her old self. "What type of Heartless is she? Oh, Elenai. You always knew I was horrible at riddles." She sighed. Ana walked into the forest, ignoring the Heartless retreating from her.

_So... what type of Heartless was Elenai?_

_Why are you so impatient, child? A story is no good told through summary. Continuing, Ana headed towards the place where the whole story started, at Elenai's cabin in the woods..._

_Where was Elenai?_ I pondered. I had been waiting in this tree for over an hour now, having glimpsed her heading out the forest. For a month, or maybe a year, I couldn't tell, I had been waiting to even the score. Then a few weeks ago she had approached me while I was trying a complicated spell, and we had fought. I won like always, but Elenai used a strange power to escape me. I had been chasing her ever since, wondering, _Was she really a Heartless?_

Just at that moment, Ana decided to come crashing though the forest, muttering something. I decided that now wasn't the time to drop in on her, her looking thoroughly pissed as she was. Instead I decided to watch her other than wait for Eleani to appear once again.

She pulled on the door handle of Elenai's cabin. When nothing happened, she tried a variety of magic tricks, earthquakes and tornadoes all centered on the house. She had increased in magical strength since I had last seen her. As I was wondering on this particular issue, a sword point was pushed between my shoulderblades.

"You won't be telling her of my little tricks, now will you Ember?" hissed Elenai's voice. I didn't notice that Ana had heard it too, and was listening closely.

"Heh. As if I even knew any of your tricks, being holed up as I was."

"Then we're clear then." The sword point disappeared as soon as it had appeared, and all I saw as I turned around was the same retreating shadow that had penetrated Hollow Bastion.

"Okay. Whoever is up there, please come down. I am not in the mood to be dealing with stalkers today," shouted Ana, scaring all of the birds out of the trees and the general wildlife away.

"I wasn't stalking _you_," I said as I slipped down from the tree, landing gracefully on my feet, like a cat. "If you have to know, I was stalking Elenai."

"So that person up there threatening you was Elenai?" she smiled grimly.

"I take it she's appeared to you, too."

"Yeah." She looked down for a while.

"Look, it's going to rain soon. We don't want to be here when it does. Elenai always kept her spare keys in a drawer by the bed. Can you make one of you winds catch it for us." She did get the keys after a few attempts, and we walked into the delightfully dusty cabin. "Don't get the idea that our score is settled though. And we aren't friends. I just really don't want to be kept out in the rain."

"Why don't you just go back to your house then and leave me alone?" asked Ana, a bit testily.

"It was destroyed by the Lord of Darkness, the bastard. I've been hiding out in Hollow Bastion for the whole time since then. But..."

"Elenai destroyed that, too?"

"No... not yet, anyway. She'll just be monitoring that place, trying to find a way to kill me. I just should warn you, she's seeking out the Keyblade Masters and destroying them."

"You mean there's more than just us?"

"I didn't say that."

Ana yawned. "We should get some sleep."

"You can. I don't need it," I answered.

"Your choice," she said, and fell asleep.

_Wait, Grandma, why is Ember being so nice? I thought she and Ana had a score to settle?_

_Well, child, I really don't know. Maybe it was to get rid of the common enemy. Maybe they both were too tired to fight. Whatever the cause, they didn't try to kill each other. _

_Oh..._

_Well, a day passed quickly trying to find unspoiled food in Elenai's cabin in silence. The day ended, and the next came. The day that Ana was supposed to answer Elenai's riddle._

"So, Ana, _dear_ friend. Have you guessed my identity yet?" asked Elenai with mocking in her voice. They were probably ten meters away from each other, and the wind blew expectantly, just like an old western duel. I honestly could've expected a tumbleweed to go blowing in between them. I was oh so cleverly hiding in the forest, so that Elenai couldn't know me and Ana had met and had an allyship going.

"Hm.. are you... a Shadow?" Uncertainty laced Ana's voice. Why not? She was the first Heartless I had known of that had kept her human shape.

"Oh, so close... and partially true, as a matter of fact. As a reward..." Elenai clapped her hands together in mock glee, "I will tell you what type of Heartless killed Koiya!"

Ana's eyes shone with expectancy.

"Elenai-type." The glee immediately dropped out of Elenai's voice, and she stared at Ana for a few moments.

"You.. you killed my brother? My only family I had left? You --"

"Oh, I think I've overwelmed Ana with a bit too much information that her puny little brain can handle," said Elenai in a very babyish voice. "I guess to keep myself intact I'll summon my minons to take care of you." She glided back into her dark form, and dark-colored flames circled around Ana slowly.

"Invisibles..." I whispered.


End file.
